To equip children with the appropriate measures in time of disasters, be it man-made or natural calamities, the East and West Central School participated Friday in fire and earthquake drills right in the campus.

Councilor Gerky Valesco, a former emergency rescuer of the Red Cross, was among the guests invited during the emergency drill with personnel from CDAG headed by Victor Amsid overseeing the conduct of the drill.

Thousands of students including teachers from both the East and West Central Schools took time to become familiar with critical and urgent situations.Also actively taking lead in the drill were dynamic personnel from the Office of the Civil Defense Action Group, Bureau of Fire, local police, task force Zamboanga, and school officials and teachers headed by District In-Charge Ronald Aba-a and Evangeline Amolo.

Amsid said he is happy that all schools which CDAG has coordinated to conduct drills, all the school officials were very cooperative which Amsid said is the suited and best attitude to work with. “I am glad that all the schools have welcomed this training and drills, and this is actually a healthy sign of our efforts to yield good and positive outcome,” Amsid said.

For his part, Aba-a said saving one’s life and saving others are equally important lessons of reality for our children.

“Due to climate change and those unforeseen situations that are happening, there is no substitute of being prepared and we are very happy that people in the field of emergency rescue are here to guide us,” Aba-a said.

Meanwhile, Gina Fernando, a CDAG staff, said they have invited Councilor Valesco for reason that he has already been serving the city as a rescue emergency volunteer long before he was elected councilor. “Therefore, we believe that Valesco is in the position to help discuss with us the urgent scenarios and the headway emergency efforts,” Fernando said.